With the bulk listing tool & the policy of free listing for 200 auctions per month, this could be one of the major venues for contemporary "Arts & Crafts" on the Internet. Keep up a good work hopefully, artisans will see the major advantage of this auction site over the others and will post listings which, of course, will draw our customer base to AuctionUniverse.

The concept of "Critical Mass" is very important. If everyone waits around until one aspect of the "Critical Mass" is achieved nothing will happen, product listing vs. buyers. A marketing strategy for AuctionUniverse would go something like this: utilizing the balk Lister to post 200 auctions per month over the next six months essentially costing you nothing for listings- tracking those postings, I'm sure, will yield a new customer base making the whole operation extraordinary profitable by the time holiday season comes around. We have to remember we can't do everything for a seven-day bottom-line we have to look and understand that most of the money made in contemporary gifs are made during a short four-week period at the end of the year.

We will be shifting a significant portion of our eBay sales to AuctionUniverse, frankly, I'm sick and tired of these outages and I think I can bring much of my customer base to this new location.

Give this some thought and I think this auction site will look more appealing.

Talk to you later, Howard
"See you on eBay" The Rose Store, eBay user ID... rosejewelry
Kindly overlook contextual errors, I use speech recognition software.
 

I found something called Merchant Central linked off the main page. In there it refers to a MerchantManager software. But it looks like it is part of a program you have to pay to join? And I am not an official business (maybe someday soon), so I am wondering if I can get in on it. Although I have already paid my $19.95 for Bid$afe. Not sure if I would want to spend a bunch more... Guess I should e-mail them and see what they say.

Neomax, where are you? Why haven't you announced this new program before?
 

I'm here and I'm trying to find some time to do some listings using the merchant manager. I have a real strong aversion to talking about something I haven't actually tried.

So, while I was involved in its development and specification of the merchant manager, end of school activities have had my wife, who does some of the buying, some listing and all the fulfillment of sales otherwise occupied.

Oh, and one thing about the merchant packages. I believe you guessed that they actually "cost" money. My understanding is "not really" ... although cash is involved; it is more along the lines of a pre-payment of commissions.

But lest I get in trouble and say something wrong, let me encourage you to go ahead and email [email protected]

Oh, and Howard, I couldn't have said what it takes, better myself.

Actually, I've got a shop owner friend whom I convinced to steak out territory in some specific categories on AU. My advice was to build an good inventory going and list and relist the 50 or so items each week. The category now has some depth and selection, but more importantly, good sales and higher dollar sales.

Frankly, it did take several weeks for sales to begin rolling in with any regularity but now they're pretty much on a roll ... and they're the leaders in their category now.

Pat

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Neomax
[email protected]

Thanks! I did send off an e-mail and a few minutes ago got the newsletter announcing the program so it must be brand-new.

And I have noticed that things are slow at AU as far as getting bids. I posted a bunch of stuff and only sold 3 items. But I still have listing credits, so it isn't bothering me too much. I was considering spending money to list on eBay, but the recent crashes there have scotched that idea. I think I just might buy stuff there and sell on AU. I like that on AU it is only 25 cents to list (the sliding scale stuff sucks) and it is a flat 2.5% commission (6% for Bid$afe transactions).